


Tangled Up In You

by flickawhip



Category: Home Fires (UK TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-05-23
Packaged: 2018-06-10 07:18:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6945244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickawhip/pseuds/flickawhip
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steph and Stan's story ends on a low note.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tangled Up In You

His eyes haunt her even as they settle together. He has seen things, horrible things, and has come home changed. She fights him at first, stops him teaching Little Stan, her son, to shoot at people, then, slowly, she realizes why. 

He feels real, he looks real but she knows there’s very little there of her Stan. He is almost perfunctory in his love-making now, driving for a goal, not once stopping to enjoy it. All the joy has left him and, when he moves away from the bed for the second night in a row, she doesn’t stop him. 

His decision to go back doesn’t surprise her. Then, finally, he is gone forever. She stands and stares out over the field they had walked down together, unable to feel anything. He may have been broken, but he had been home. He had been safe. She had let him go back. 

The rage builds, slowly, over time, until eventually, when the crops are needed and she has no help, she snaps, screaming at her son, and Isobel. She apologizes later, but there is still very little left of her will to survive. She pushes on only for Little Stan. 

This stops only when Isobel’s hands grasp at hers, shutting out all the noise of her thoughts. There is a simple happiness in Isobel’s company and Steph finds she cries at last, letting everything go. Memories of Stan linger and yet… she cannot stand to let go of it. 

Things lessen over time and yet, Steph finds she joins Alison at the memorial more and more often. A silence between them, filled only with the silent promise to always support one another.


End file.
